Dynamic point selection via a coordinating set of base stations

ABSTRACT

Examples are disclosed for coordinating transmission of one or more protocol data units to a wireless device from a coordinating set of base stations. In some examples, coordinating may include exchanging information via a backhaul communication channel coupling or interconnecting the base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations. For these examples, one or more protocol data units may be transmitted to the wireless device from the coordinating set of base stations via a plurality of separate communication links based on the exchanged information. Other examples are described and claimed.

RELATED CASE

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 61/556,109, filed on Nov. 4, 2011 and United Stations ProvisionalPatent Application No. 61/589,774, filed on Jan. 23, 2012, the entiretyof both applications are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) is an example of a collaborative schemeincreasingly being used in wireless networks. CoMP may be implemented tomitigate interference between base stations, improve system spectralefficiency and enhance throughput performance for user equipment (UE)located at the edge of a base station's coverage area. In some examples,base stations for a wireless network may coordinate downlinktransmissions to UEs to accomplish at least one of these goalsassociated with improving a wireless network's performance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a first wireless network.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a second wireless network.

FIG. 3 illustrates example protocol stack interactions.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a configuration table.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a message format.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example process.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example block diagram for an apparatus.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a first logic flow.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a second logic flow.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a storage medium.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a communications architecture.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a communications system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples are generally directed to improvements for wireless mobilebroadband technologies. Wireless mobile broadband technologies mayinclude any wireless technologies suitable for use with wireless devicesor user equipment (UE), such as one or more third generation (3G) orfourth generation (4G) wireless standards, revisions, progeny andvariants. Examples of wireless mobile broadband technologies may includewithout limitation any of the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.16m and 802.16p standards, 3rd GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced(LTE ADV) standards, and International Mobile TelecommunicationsAdvanced (IMT-ADV) standards, including their revisions, progeny andvariants. Other suitable examples may include without limitation GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (GSM)/Enhanced Data Rates for GSMEvolution (EDGE) technologies, Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (UMTS)/High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technologies, WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) or the WiMAX IItechnologies, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 systemtechnologies (e.g., CDMA2000 1xRTT, CDMA2000 EV-DO, CDMA EV-DV, and soforth), High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HIPERMAN)technologies as defined by the European Telecommunications StandardsInstitute (ETSI) Broadband Radio Access Networks (BRAN), WirelessBroadband (WiBro) technologies, GSM with General Packet Radio Service(GPRS) system (GSM/GPRS) technologies, High Speed Downlink Packet Access(HSDPA) technologies, High Speed Orthogonal Frequency-DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) Packet Access (HSOPA) technologies, High-SpeedUplink Packet Access (HSUPA) system technologies, 3GPP Rel. 8 and 9 ofLTE/System Architecture Evolution (SAE), and so forth. The examples arenot limited in this context.

By way of example and not limitation, various examples may be describedwith specific reference to various 3GPP LTE and LTE ADV standards, suchas the 3GPP LTE Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN),Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and LTE ADV Radio Technology36 Series of Technical Specifications (collectively “3GPP LTESpecifications”), and IEEE 802.16 standards, such as the IEEE802.16-2009 standard and current third revision to IEEE 802.16 referredto as “802.16Rev3” consolidating standards 802.16-2009, 802.16h-2010 and802.16m-2011, and the IEEE 802.16p draft standards including IEEEP802.16.1b/D2 Jan. 2012 titled “Draft Amendment to IEEE Standard forWirelessMAN-Advanced Air Interface for Broadband Wireless AccessSystems, Enhancements to Support Machine-to-Machine Applications”(collectively “IEEE 802.16 Standards”), and any drafts, revisions orvariants of the 3GPP LTE Specifications and the IEEE 802.16 Standards.Although some embodiments may be described as a 3GPP LTE Specificationsor IEEE 802.16 Standards system by way of example and not limitation, itmay be appreciated that other types of communications system may beimplemented as various other types of mobile broadband communicationssystems and standards. The examples are not limited in this context

As contemplated in the present disclosure, coordinated multipoint (CoMP)may be implemented for a wireless network to possibly mitigateinterference between base stations, improve system spectral efficiencyand enhance throughput performance for user equipment (UE) located atthe edge of a base station's coverage area. Some CoMP schemes assume useof remote radio heads or entities (RRH) that have a fast, proprietaryinterface between the RRH and a base station such as an evolved Node B(eNB) base station for a Wireless LTE or LTE-A network. These CoMPschemes further assumed that a single eNB serves multiple cells throughthe deployment of RRHs that together implement what is effectively anintra-eNB CoMP scheme.

A fast proprietary interface between RRHs and an eNB may allow anintra-eNB CoMP scheme to meet latency and throughput requirements for aneffective CoMP scheme. However, since a proprietary interface is notstandardized, operators may be forced to use equipment from the samevender. Another disadvantage of an intra-eNB CoMP scheme may be thatthis type of CoMP scheme may be limited to implementations in areascovered by RRHs connected to the same eNB. Adjacent cells served bydifferent eNBs (possibly from different venders) may not be able tofully utilize the benefits of a CoMP scheme. As a result, the adjacentcells having UEs located at the edge of a given eNB's coverage area maynot be able to implement a CoMP scheme that mitigates interference,improves system spectral efficiency and enhances throughput performance.

In some examples, techniques are implemented for receiving, at a basestation for a wireless network (e.g., an eNB), measurement informationfrom a wireless device that indicates an ability of the wireless deviceto receive data from a coordinating set of base stations via a pluralityof separate communication links. Transmission of one or more protocoldata units (PDUs) to the wireless device from the coordinating set ofbase stations may then be coordinated. The coordinating may includeexchanging information via one or more backhaul communication channelscoupling base stations included in the coordinating set of basestations. In some examples, one or more protocol data units may then becaused to be transmitted to the wireless device from the coordinatingset of base stations via the plurality of separate communication linksbased on the exchanged information.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless network 100. In someexamples, as shown in FIG. 1, wireless network 100 includes cells 110and 120. Also, as shown in FIG. 1, cells 110 and 120 may each include abase station (BS) 111 and a BS 121, respectively. According to someexamples, cells 110 and 120 may represent macro cells for wirelessnetwork 100. For these examples, cell 110 may also include cells 130 and140 that separately include a BS 131 and a BS 141, respectively. Cells130 and 140, in some examples, may represent micro or pico cellsincluded within macro cell 110. As shown in FIG. 1, BS 111 may becoupled or interconnected with BSs 121, 131 and 141 via a backhaulcommunication channels. These backhaul communication channels are shownin FIG. 1 as communication channel (Comm. Ch.) 125, a Comm. Ch. 135 anda Comm. Ch. 145.

According to some examples, as shown in FIG. 1, user equipment (UE) 105may be located at or near the edge of cells 110, 120, 130 and 140. Also,as shown in FIG. 1, UE 105 may be communicatively coupled to and/or maybe able to measure communication signals from BSs 111, 121, 131 and 141via a communication link (CL) 113, a CL 123, a CL 133 and a CL 143,respectively.

In some examples, BS 111 may include logic and/or features arranged toestablish a communication link with UE 105. The logic and/or featuresmay also be arranged to associate UE 105 with a coordinating set of basestations. For these examples, the coordinating base stations may includeBSs 111, 121, 131 or 141. The logic and/or features included in BS 111may also be arranged to coordinate transmission of one or more PDUs toUE 105. The coordination may include exchanging information via one ormore of Comm. Chs. 125, 135 or 145 that couple BS 111 with BSs 121, 131or 141, respectively. Also, for these examples, the logic and/orfeatures included in BS 111 may be arranged to cause the one or morePDUs to be transmitted to UE 105 from the coordinating set of basestations via one or more of CLs 113, 123, 133 or 143 coupled between UE105 and BSs 111, 121, 131 or 141. The transmission of the PDUs may becaused based on the information exchanged via one or more of Comm. Chs.125, 135 or 145.

In some examples, coordinating transmission of the one or more PDUs maybe to balance transmission load of the one or more PDUs between thevarious base stations coupled to UE 105 and included in the coordinatingset of base stations. For example, the coordination may allow for a typeof CoMP scheme called dynamic point selection (DPS). Using a DPS CoMPscheme, BSs 111, 121, 131 or 141 may load balance PDUs to be transmittedto UE 105 via each base station's respective communication link with UE105. Use of the DPS CoMP scheme for transmission of the one or more PDUsmay also mitigate possible downlink interference between the basestations. For example, downlink transmissions may be scheduled tominimize or reduce interference between the base stations. Also, whentransmitting to other UEs besides UE 105, BSs 111, 121, 131 or 141 mayimplement resource blanking schemes that include the scheduling of oneor more almost blank subframes (ABS), scheduling reduced power subframesor scheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks to minimize orreduce interference.

According to some examples, UE 105 may be any electronic device havingwireless capabilities or equipment. For some examples, UE 105 may beimplemented in a fixed device. A fixed device generally refers to anelectronic device designed to be in a fixed, stationary, permanent orotherwise non-moving position or location that does not vary over time.For instance, a fixed device may be installed with fixtures, attachmentsand housings to prohibit movement, including wired power lines,transmission lines, and so forth. By way of contrast, a mobile device isdesigned to be portable enough to be frequently moved between variouslocations over time. It may be appreciated that although a fixed deviceis generally stationary, some fixed devices may be disconnected fromtheir current equipment in a first fixed location, moved to a secondfixed location, and connected to equipment at the second fixed location.

According to some examples, the logic and/or features at BSs 111, 121131 or 141 may include system equipment, such as network equipment for acommunications system or network compliant with one or more 3GPP LTESpecifications (e.g., LTE-A). For example, these base stations may beimplemented as evolved Node B (eNB) base stations for a Wireless LTE orLTE-A network. Although some examples are described with reference to abase station or eNB, embodiments may utilize any network equipment for awireless network. The examples are not limited in this context.

In some examples, Comm. Chs. 125, 135 or 145 may be arranged orconfigured as backhaul communication channels separately including oneor more communication links via which BS 111 may exchange informationwith, BSs 121, 131 or 141. These one or more communication links mayinclude various types of wired, wireless or optical communicationmediums. For these examples, the communication links may be operated inaccordance with one or more applicable communication or networkingstandards in any version. One such communication or networking standardmay include 3GPP LTE-A and Comm. Chs. 125, 135 or 145 may be separatelyarranged to serve as X2 communication channels. According to someexamples, logic and/or features at BS 111, 121, 131 or 141 may includean X2 interface that at least allows for BS 111 to exchange informationvia the X2 communication channel with these base stations.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a wireless network 200. According tosome examples, wireless network 200 may be configured to operate incompliance with one or more 3GPP LTE standards such as LTE-A. As shownin FIG. 2, wireless network 200 includes a BS 210 and a BS 220 coupledvia an X2 Comm. Ch. 235. BS 210 and BS 220 are also shown as separatelycoupling to an UE 205 via a CL 213 and a CL 223, respectively. Wirelessnetwork 200 is also shown in FIG. 2 to include a mobility managemententity 230 and a serving gateway 240. In some examples, as shown in FIG.2, mobility management entity 230 couples to BS 210 and BS 220 via Comm.Chs. 232 and 234, respectively. Also as shown in FIG. 2, serving gateway240 couples to BS 210 and BS 220 via Comm. Chs. 242 and 244,respectively.

According to some examples, the solid line for Comm. Ch. 242 betweenserving gateway 240 and BS 210 indicates a route for one or more PDUsdestined for UE 205. For these examples, the one or more PDUs may havebeen routed through a core network associated with wireless network 200.The one or more PDUs may convey packetized information or data toinclude voice, video, audio or data files to UE 205.

In some examples, since BS 210 receives the one or more PDUs fromserving gateway 240, BS 210 may be deemed as a primary base station fora coordinating set of base stations. Meanwhile, BS 220 may be deemed asa secondary base station for the coordinating set of base stations. Asthe primary base station, BS 210 may include logic and/or features toexchange various messages with BS 220 in order to coordinatetransmission of the one or more PDUs to UE 205. BS 210 may coordinatethe transmission of the one or more PDUs via the exchange of informationover a backhaul communication channel such as X2 Comm. Ch. 235.

In some examples, BS 210 serving as the primary base station, and BS 220serving as the secondary base station, may constitute a coordinating setof base stations associated with UE 205. For these examples, BS 210 mayestablish CL 213 with UE 205. UE 205 may provide measurement informationto BS 210 via CL 213 that indicates an ability by UE 205 to receive datafrom BS 220, e.g., via CL 223. For example, the measurement informationmay include channel state information (CSI) associated with CL 223'sability to provide a communication link for at least downlinktransmissions from BS 220. According to some examples, the CSIassociated with CL 223 may include such information as a precodingmatrix indicator (PMI), a rank indicator (RI) or a channel qualityindicator (CQI). The PMI may indicate the optimum precoding matrix to beused at BS 220 for a given radio condition as observed by UE 205. The RImay indicate the number of useful transmission layers when spatialmultiplexing is used. The CQI may provide a qualitative measure of CL223's ability to support various data loads or throughputs transmittedfrom BS 220. According to some examples, if the CSI for CL 223 indicatesan acceptable ability to support downlink transmissions from BS 220, BS210 may associate UE 205 with BS 220 and thus include BS 220 in thecoordinating set of base stations.

According to some examples, BS 210 may coordinate the transmission ofthe one or more PDUs received from serving gateway 240 to balancetransmission load of the one or more PDUs between BS 210 and BS 220. BS210 may also coordinate the transmission of the one or more PDUs topossibly mitigate downlink transmission interference between BS 210 andBS 220. For example, since CL 223 has the ability to support downlinktransmissions from BS 220, UE 205 may experience interference from BS220 while receiving downlink transmissions from BS 210. Also, UE 205 mayexperience interference from BS 210 while receiving downlinktransmissions from BS 220. In some examples, an interference mitigationscheme such as resource blanking for subframes associated with the oneor more PDUs and/or reduced power subframes associated with the one ormore PDUs may be implemented at BS 210 and/or BS 220 to reduce orminimize possible interference between the two base stations.

In some examples, coordination information to load balance and/ormitigate interference between BS 210 and BS 220 may be transferred orexchanged via X2 Comm. Ch. 235 in real time (e.g., for each downlinkPDU) or semi-statically (e.g., for a plurality of downlink PDUs).

FIG. 3 illustrates example protocol stack interactions. In someexamples, protocol stack interactions for PDUs transmitted from BS 210to UE 205 may be as shown in FIG. 3. For these examples, BS 210 may beserving as the primary base station for a coordinating set of basestations and BS 220 may be serving as the secondary base station. Asmentioned above for FIG. 2, as the primary base station, BS 210initially receives PDUs destined for UE 205 from the core network viaserving gateway 240. BS 210 may then forward one or more of these PDUsto BS 220. Both BS 210 and BS 220 may include logic and/or features tosupport the protocol stack interactions depicted in FIG. 3. For example,BS 210 may include logic and/or features to support several protocolstack 1 layers. These protocol stack layers are shown in FIG. 3 as aphysical (PHY) 322, a media access controller (MAC) 324, a radio linkcontrol (RLC) 326 or a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) 328. UE205 may also include logic and/or features to support protocol stackinteractions with BS 220 and/or BS 210. For examples, UE 205 is shown inFIG. 3 as including PHY 312, MAC 314, RLC 316 or PDCP 318 protocol stacklayers. According to some examples, BS 220 may include logic and/orfeatures to support at least some protocol interactions with either UE205 or BS 210. For examples, as shown in FIG. 3, BS 220 may includelogic and/or features to support protocol stack layers PHY 332 and MAC334. In other examples (not shown), the logic and/or features of BS 220may also support the same protocol interactions with UE 205 as shown inFIG. 3 between BS 210 and UE 205.

According to some examples, for downlink transmission of PDUs from BS210 to UE 205, most of the data plane and user plane protocol stacklayers (e.g., RLC and PDCP) may be terminated at BS 210. Also, as shownin FIG. 3, UE 205 may have some protocol stack layer interaction with BS220 at the PHY protocol stack layer. For these examples, PHY protocolstack interactions may enable UE 205 to communicate informationassociated with hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information to BS220. The HARQ information may include acknowledgements (ACK) ofsuccessful receipt of one or more PDUs at UE 205 or negativeacknowledgement (NACK) of unsuccessful receipt of one or more PDUs at UE205.

In some examples, BS 220 may receive a NACK indication from UE 205 viaan interaction between PHY 312 and PHY 332. The NACK may indicate thatone or more PDUs transmitted from BS 210 were unsuccessfully received(e.g., received with errors). BS 220 may include logic and/or featuresto coordinate with BS 210 via an interaction between MAC 334 and MAC 324for a retransmission of the one or more PDUs. Alternatively, BS 220 mayreceive an ACK indication from UE 205 via an interaction between PHY 312and PHY 332. For this alternative, the ACK may indicate successfulreceipt of the one or more PDUs. BS 220 may then indicate to BS 210 thesuccessful receipt via an interaction between MAC 334 and MAC 324.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a configuration table 400. As shown inFIG. 4, configuration table 400 includes time division duplex (TDD)information for transmission of subframes from a base station in awireless network. In some examples, as shown in FIG. 4, configurationtable 400 may include uplink-downlink configurations 0-6. For theseexamples, each of the uplink-downlink configurations may havedownlink-to-uplink switch-point-periodicities of 5 milliseconds (ms) or10 ms. Also, a subframe index/number from 0-9 may identify a givensubframe associated with a given uplink-downlink configuration. A “D”may indicate a downlink subframe, a “U” may indicate an uplink subframeand an “S” may indicate a special subframe (e.g., reserved for controlinformation).

According to some examples, coordinating base stations may be arrangedto operate according to uplink-downlink configuration 1. As shown inFIG. 4, uplink-downlink configuration 1 may be depicted as the shadedrow in configuration table 400. For these examples, thedownlink-to-uplink switch-point periodicity may be 5 ms and subframeindex/numbers 0, 4, 5 and 9 are used for downlink transmissions. Asdescribed more below, information exchanged between base stationsincluded in a coordinating set may include a reference to a givensubframe index/number in order to coordinate downlink transmission ofone or more PDUs to a wireless device.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a message format 500. As shown in FIG.5, message format 500 includes fields, 510 to 550. In some examples, oneor more messages including at least a portion of the fields of downlinktransmission message 500 may be exchanged between a coordinating set ofbase stations such as BS 210 and BS 220. These messages may beexchanged, for example, to implement a DPS CoMP scheme. The messages maybe exchanged via a backhaul communication channel such as X2 Comm. Ch.235 as shown in FIG. 2.

In some examples, the one or more messages may be in the format ofdownlink transmission message 500 and may include scheduling information(info.) in field 510 to be used to schedule transmission of each PDUfrom BS 220 to a wireless device such as UE 205. For example, schedulinginfo. may include similar contents as downlink control information (DCI)typically conveyed in DCI message formats (e.g., using InformationElements (IEs)) for receiving PDUs via a 3GPP LTE-A compliantcommunication link (e.g., CL 223). The scheduling info. may also includeinformation to indicate a possible order of a given PDU in a sequence ofPDUs that may be load balanced between BS 210 and BS 220. The schedulinginfo. included in field 510 may be conveyed to UE 205 via a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) and may include information necessaryfor UE 205 to identify resources to receive a physical downlink sharedchannel (PDSCH) in a given subframe and how to decode the givensubframe.

According to some examples, a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) may beincluded in field 520. For these examples, PMI may include beamforminginformation. As mentioned above, a PMI may be reported to BS 210 from UE205 to indicate the state of the downlink channel as measured/observedby UE 205. The PMI included in field 520 may have a value associatedwith a codebook to indicate what beamforming is needed by BS 220 whentransmitting the PDU.

In some examples, subframe index/number in field 530 may indicate viawhich subframe the PDU is to be transmitted to UE 205. For example, bothBS 210 and BS 220 may be arranged to use uplink-downlink configuration 1as mentioned above and depicted in configuration table 400 for FIG. 4.For configuration 1, field 530 may indicate a subframe index/number of0, 4, 5 or 9.

According to some examples, transmit (Tx) start time included in field540 may indicate an absolute time of a beginning of a transmission of aPDU with a granularity of at least one subframe.

In some examples, HARQ included in field 550 may indicate informationassociated with HARQ. For these examples, HARQ information included infield 550 may include a new data indicator (NDI) to indicate whether thedownlink PDU is new data or a retransmission of previously transmittedPDU(s). HARQ information may also include of a transport block (TB) sizefor the PDU, a HARQ process identification (ID), or a redundancyversion.

According to some examples, the information mentioned above included infields 510 to 550 of downlink transmit message 500 may be exchangedbetween BS 210 and BS 220 via X2 Comm. Ch. 235. Also as mentioned above,wireless network 200 may be operated in compliance with the 3GPP LTE-Astandard. In some examples, downlink transmit message 500 may beincorporated in a GPRS tunneling protocol user-plane (GTP-u) ExtensionHeader and included with each PDU to be transmitted to UE 205. In otherexamples, downlink transmit message 500 may be transferred as part of anX2 message such as a COMP SCHEDULING INFO message. The COMP SCHEDULINGINFO message may also include a GTP-u PDU sequence number that is usedto correlate between a PDU and its corresponding scheduling information.In other examples, the information included in downlink transmit message500 may be transferred as part of a single COMP SCHEDULING INFO messagethat carries scheduling information for multiple PDUs. In otherexamples, a PDU may be transmitted along with scheduling information ina same COMP SCHEDULING INFO message. In other examples, a different typeof X2 message such as a COMP DATA TRANSFER message may carry theinformation described above for a message in the format of downlinktransmission message 500 as well as the PDU. For each of the examplesabove, the message used to carry the information included in a messagein the format of downlink transmission message 500 may also be formattedto carry at least the contents (e.g., a packet) of a PDU either beforethose contents are processed by a PDCP protocol layer (e.g., PDCP 328 ofBS 220) or after those contents have been processed by the PDCP, RLC andthe MAC protocol layers (e.g., PDCP 328, RLC 326 and MAC 324 of BS 220).

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a process 600. In some examples,process 600 may be for implementing a CoMP scheme such as a DPS CoMPscheme. For these examples, elements of wireless network 200 as shown inFIG. 2 may be used to illustrate example operations related to process600. The described example operations are not limited to implementationson wireless network 200 as shown in FIG. 2

Beginning at process 6.1 (Establish Communication Link), logic and/orfeatures at BS 210 may be arranged to establish CL 213 with UE 205. Insome examples, CL 213 may be established according to one or more 3GPPLTE standards to include LTE-A. For these examples, BS 210 may serve asthe primary base station for a coordinating set of base stations.

Proceeding to process 6.2 (Receive Measurement Information), BS 210 mayrequest measurement information from UE 205 to determine what other basestations may be able to transmit PDUs to UE 205. For these examples, UE205 may provide information to indicate that downlink transmissionsignals from at least BS 220 (e.g., via CL 223) are adequate to receivePDUs. Based on this indication of adequacy, BS 210 may associate UE 205with a coordinating set of base stations that includes BS 220 and alsoincludes BS 210. BS 220 may function as a secondary base station forthis coordinating set of base stations.

Proceeding to process 6.3 (Coordinate Transmission of PDUs), logicand/or features at BS 210 may be arranged to coordinate transmission ofone or more PDUs. In some examples, the coordination may be part of aDPS CoMP scheme to load balance the transmission of the one or more PDUsand/or mitigate downlink transmission interference between BS 210 and BS220 while the one or more PDUs are being transmitted. For theseexamples, information may be exchanged via X2 Comm. Ch. 235 and mayinvolve the exchange of one or messages in the format of downlinktransmission message 500 or at least include the information mentionedabove for a message in the format of downlink transmission message 500.

Proceeding to process 6.4 (Transmit PDUs), BS 210 may include logicand/or features arranged to transmit one or more PDUs according to theinformation exchanged.

Proceeding to process 6.5 (Transmit PDUs), BS 220 may include logicand/or features arranged to transmit one or more PDUs according to theinformation exchanged.

Proceeding to process 6.6 (Receive ACK/NACK), BS 210 may include logicand/or features arrange to receive ACKs and/or NACKs from UE 205 for theone or more PDUs transmitted from either BS 210 or BS 220. In someexamples, UE 205 may be arranged to transmit all ACKs and/or NACKs tothe primary base station of the coordinating set of base stations.

Proceeding to process 6.7 (Indicate ACK or Coordinate Retransmission ofPDU(s)), BS 210 may include logic and/or features arranged to exchangeinformation with BS 220 to indicate whether transmitted PDUs weresuccessfully received or were unsuccessfully received. In some examples,if at least one transmitted PDU was unsuccessfully received, a messagein the format of downlink transmission message 500 may be forwarded viaX2 Comm. Ch. 235 and may include HARQ information to indicate to BS 220which PDU(s) to retransmit.

Proceeding to process 6.8 (Retransmit PDUs), BS 220 may include logicand/or features arranged to retransmit PDUs based at least on theinformation exchanged as mentioned above for process 6.7. In someexamples, BS 220 may continue to retransmit a PDU based on exchangedinformation with BS 210 that indicates unsuccessful reception at UE 205.In other examples, rather than having BS 220 continually retransmit anunsuccessfully received PDU, BS 210 may retransmit these PDUs. For theseother examples, BS 210 will then forward an ACK to BS 220 if BS 210'sattempt to retransmit these PDUs is successfully received at UE 205. IfBS 210's retransmission attempts are not successful, BS 210 may takeother corrective actions.

Proceeding to process 6.9 (Exchange Resource Information), BS 210 and BS220 may include logic and/or features to periodically exchange resourceinformation (e.g., every 200 millisecond (ms)). In some examples, theexchanged resource information may be used to update scheduling forsubsequent transmission of PDUs from the coordinating set of basestations. For these examples, either BS 210 or BS 220 may indicate alack of adequate resources to support load balancing or may indicatemore resources and a capability to handle a higher portion of the loadbalancing.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram for an apparatus 700. Although theapparatus 700 shown in FIG. 7 has a limited number of elements in acertain topology, it may be appreciated that the apparatus 700 mayinclude more or less elements in alternate topologies as desired for agiven implementation.

The apparatus 700 may comprise a computer-implemented apparatus 700having a processor circuit 720 arranged to execute one or more softwarecomponents 722-a. It is worthy to note that “a” and “b” and “c” andsimilar designators as used herein are intended to be variablesrepresenting any positive integer. Thus, for example, if animplementation sets a value for a=5, then a complete set of softwarecomponents 722-a may include components 722-1, 722-2, 722-3, 722-4 and722-5. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

According to some examples, apparatus 700 may be system equipment (e.g.,located at or with BS 111, 121, 131, 141, 210 or 220), such as networkequipment for a communications system or network compliant with one ormore 3GPP LTE Specifications. For example, apparatus 700 may beimplemented as part of a base station or eNB for an LTE and/or LTE-Acompliant wireless network. Although some examples are described withreference to a base station or eNB, examples may utilize any networkequipment for a communications system or network. The examples are notlimited in this context.

In some examples, as shown in FIG. 7, apparatus 700 includes processorcircuit 720. Processor circuit 720 may be generally arranged to executeone or more software components 722-a. The processing circuit 720 can beany of various commercially available processors, including withoutlimitation an AMD® Athlon®, Duron® and Opteron® processors; ARM®application, embedded and secure processors; IBM® and Motorola®DragonBall® and PowerPC® processors; IBM and Sony® Cell processors;Intel® Celeron®, Core (2) Duo®, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Itanium®,Pentium®, Xeon®, and XScale® processors; and similar processors. Dualmicroprocessors, multi-core processors, and other multi-processorarchitectures may also be employed as processing circuit 720.

According to some examples, apparatus 700 may include a link component722-1. Link component 722-1 may be arranged for execution by processorcircuit 720 to establish a communication link with a wireless devicesuch as UE 105 or UE 205. For these examples, establishment information710 may be exchanged between the wireless device to establish thecommunication link. For example, apparatus 700 may operate in compliancewith the 3GPP LTE-A specification and establishment information 710 mayinclude information to establish a 3GPP LTE-A compliant communicationlink with the wireless device.

In some examples, apparatus 700 may also include a receive component722-2. Receive component 722-2 may be arranged for execution byprocessor circuit 720 to associate the wireless device with acoordinating set of base stations for a wireless network (e.g., wirelessnetwork 100 or 200). For these examples, measurement information 712 maybe received from the wireless device that indicates the wirelessdevice's ability to receive data from the coordinating set of basestations. The coordinating set of base stations may include a basestation via which apparatus 700 may be located as well as at least oneother base station for the wireless network.

In some examples, apparatus 700 may also include a coordinationcomponent 722-3. Coordination component 722-3 may be arranged forexecution by processor circuit 720 to coordinate transmission of one ormore PDUs to the wireless device from the coordinating set of basestations. For these examples, coordinating may include exchanginginformation via a backhaul communication channel such Comm. Chs. 125,135 or 145 shown in FIG. 1 or X2 Comm. Ch. 235 shown in FIG. 2. Also,for these examples, the exchanged information may be at leasttemporarily maintained by coordination component 722-3 (e.g., stored ina data structure such as a lookup table (LUT)). The exchangedinformation may include schedule information 723-a, PMI 724-b,configuration 726-c, timing information 727-d, HARQ information 728-e orresource information 729-f.

According to some examples, coordination component 722-3 may be arrangedto forward a message (e.g., in the format of downlink transmissionmessage 500) via the backhaul communication channel to one or more basestations included in the coordinating set of base stations. For theseexamples, the message is depicted in FIG. 7 as coordination information730-g. Coordination information 730-g may include information to enablebase stations included in the coordinating set to balance transmissionload of the one or more PDUs and/or mitigate downlink transmissioninterference between the base stations included in the coordinating setof base stations. Coordination information 730-g may also includeresource information exchanged with base stations included in thecoordinating set of base stations to further assist with load balancing.

According to some examples, apparatus 700 may also include a schedulecomponent 722-4. Schedule component 722-3 may be arranged for executionby processor circuit 720 to cause the one or more PDUs to be transmittedto the wireless device from the coordinating set of base stations via aplurality of separate communication links based on the exchangedinformation. As mentioned above, the exchanged information may includeschedule information 723-a, PMI 724-b, configuration 726-c, timinginformation 727-d, HARQ information 728-e or resource information 729-f.

Various components of apparatus 700 and a device implementing apparatus700 may be communicatively coupled to each other by various types ofcommunications media to coordinate operations. The coordination mayinvolve the uni-directional or bi-directional exchange of information.For instance, the components may communicate information in the form ofsignals communicated over the communications media. The information canbe implemented as signals allocated to various signal lines. In suchallocations, each message is a signal. Further embodiments, however, mayalternatively employ data messages. Such data messages may be sentacross various connections. Example connections include parallelinterfaces, serial interfaces, and bus interfaces.

Included herein is a set of logic flows representative of examplemethodologies for performing novel aspects of the disclosedarchitecture. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the oneor more methodologies shown herein are shown and described as a seriesof acts, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate thatthe methodologies are not limited by the order of acts. Some acts may,in accordance therewith, occur in a different order and/or concurrentlywith other acts from that shown and described herein. For example, thoseskilled in the art will understand and appreciate that a methodologycould alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states orevents, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, not all acts illustratedin a methodology may be required for a novel implementation.

A logic flow may be implemented in software, firmware, and/or hardware.In software and firmware embodiments, a logic flow may be implemented bycomputer executable instructions stored on at least one non-transitorycomputer readable medium or machine readable medium, such as an optical,magnetic or semiconductor storage. The embodiments are not limited inthis context.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a logic flow 800. Logic flow 800 may berepresentative of some or all of the operations executed by one or morelogic, features, or devices described herein, such as apparatus 800.More particularly, logic flow 800 may be implemented by link component722-1, receive component 722-2, coordination component 722-3 or schedulecomponent 722-4.

In the illustrated example shown in FIG. 8, logic flow 800 may receivemeasurement information from a wireless device at block 802. In someexamples, receive component 722-2 of apparatus 700 (e.g., included in BS210) may exchange measurement information with the wireless device(e.g., UE 205) that indicates an ability of the wireless device toreceive data from a coordinating set of base stations via a plurality ofcommunication links. For these examples, receive component 722-2 mayreceive measurement information 712 from UE 205 via CL 213. Measurementinformation 712 may indicate UE 205's ability to receive PDUs from atleast one other base station besides BS 210. For example, measurementinformation 712 may indicate that UE 205 has an ability to receive PDUsfrom BS 220 via CL 223.

According to some examples logic flow 800 at block 804 may coordinatetransmission of PDUs to the wireless device. For these examples,coordination component 722-3 at block 806 may utilize scheduleinformation 723-a, PMI 724-b, configuration 726-c, timing information727-d and HARQ information 728-e to coordinate the transmission byexchanging coordination information 730-f (e.g., in the format ofdownlink transmission message 500) via a backhaul communication channelsuch as X2 Comm. Ch. 235.

According to some examples, logic flow 800 at block 808 may cause thePDUs to be transmitted to the wireless device based on the exchangedcoordination information. For these examples, BS 210 and BS 220 maytransmit the one or more PDUs to UE 205 based on implementing a DPS CoMPscheme to load balance and/or mitigate interference associated with thetransmission of the one or more PDUs.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a logic flow 900. Logic flow 900 may berepresentative of some or all of the operations executed by one or morelogic, features, or devices described herein, such as apparatus 700.More particularly, logic flow 900 may be implemented by link component722-1, receive component 722-2, coordination component 722-3 or schedulecomponent 722-4.

In the illustrated example shown in FIG. 9, logic flow 900 may operate abase station and coordinating set of base stations in compliance withone or more 3GPP LTE standards or specifications to includespecifications associated with LTE-A at block 902. For example, the basestations depicted in FIG. 2 such as BS 210 or BS 220 may be arranged tooperate in compliance with one or more specifications associated withLTE-A.

According to some examples, logic flow 900 may operate the base stationand the coordinating set of base stations as eNBs at block 904. Forexample, BS 210 may be arranged to operate as an eNB for wirelessnetwork 200. As mentioned above, BS 210 and BS 220 may be included in acoordinating set of base stations, thus BS 220 may also be arranged tooperate as an eNB for wireless network 200.

In some examples, logic flow 900 may exchange coordinating informationvia an X2 communication channel at block 906. For example, components ofan apparatus 700 at BS 210 such as coordination component 722-3 may bearranged to exchange coordinating information with BS 220 via X2 Comm.Ch. 235. The coordination information may be in a message having atleast the contents described in FIG. 5 for downlink transmission message500. The coordination information may also be transferred to orexchanged with BS 220 via X2 messages such as a COMP SCHEDULING INFOmessage or a COMP DATA TRANSFER message.

According to some examples, logic flow 900 may also cause one or morePDUs to be transmitted based on exchanged HARQ information at block 908.For these examples, UE 205 may have unsuccessfully received previouslytransmitted PDUs from BS 220. Components of apparatus 700 at BS 210 suchas coordination component 722-3 may be arranged to provide HARQinformation to possibly allow BS 220 to retransmit the unsuccessfullyreceived PDUs to UE 205.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a storage medium 1000. The storagemedium 1000 may comprise an article of manufacture. In some examples,storage medium 1000 may include any non-transitory computer readablemedium or machine readable medium, such as an optical, magnetic orsemiconductor storage. Storage medium 1000 may store various types ofcomputer executable instructions, such as instructions to implement oneor more of the logic flows 800 and/or 900. Examples of a computerreadable or machine readable storage medium may include any tangiblemedia capable of storing electronic data, including volatile memory ornon-volatile memory, removable or non-removable memory, erasable ornon-erasable memory, writeable or re-writeable memory, and so forth.Examples of computer executable instructions may include any suitabletype of code, such as source code, compiled code, interpreted code,executable code, static code, dynamic code, object-oriented code, visualcode, and the like. The examples are not limited in this context.

FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment of a device 1100 for use in abroadband wireless access network. Device 1100 may implement, forexample, apparatus 700, storage medium 1000 and/or a logic circuit 1170.The logic circuit 1170 may include physical circuits to performoperations described for apparatus 700. As shown in FIG. 11, device 1100may include a radio interface 1110, baseband circuitry 1120, andcomputing platform 1130, although examples are not limited to thisconfiguration.

The device 1100 may implement some or all of the structure and/oroperations for the apparatus 700, storage medium 1000 and/or logiccircuit 1170 in a single computing entity, such as entirely within asingle device. Alternatively, the device 1100 may distribute portions ofthe structure and/or operations for the apparatus 700, storage medium1000 and/or logic circuit 1170 across multiple computing entities usinga distributed system architecture, such as a client-server architecture,a 3-tier architecture, an N-tier architecture, a tightly-coupled orclustered architecture, a peer-to-peer architecture, a master-slavearchitecture, a shared database architecture, and other types ofdistributed systems. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

In one embodiment, radio interface 1110 may include a component orcombination of components adapted for transmitting and/or receivingsingle carrier or multi-carrier modulated signals (e.g., includingcomplementary code keying (CCK) and/or orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (OFDM) symbols) although the embodiments are not limited toany specific over-the-air interface or modulation scheme. Radiointerface 1110 may include, for example, a receiver 1112, a transmitter1116 and/or a frequency synthesizer 1114. Radio interface 1110 mayinclude bias controls, a crystal oscillator and/or one or more antennas1118-f. In another embodiment, radio interface 1110 may use externalvoltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), surface acoustic wave filters,intermediate frequency (IF) filters and/or RF filters, as desired. Dueto the variety of potential RF interface designs an expansivedescription thereof is omitted.

Baseband circuitry 1120 may communicate with radio interface 1110 toprocess receive and/or transmit signals and may include, for example, ananalog-to-digital converter 1122 for down converting received signals, adigital-to-analog converter 1124 for up converting signals fortransmission. Further, baseband circuitry 1120 may include a baseband orphysical layer (PHY) processing circuit 1126 for PHY link layerprocessing of respective receive/transmit signals. Baseband circuitry1120 may include, for example, a processing circuit 1128 for mediumaccess control (MAC)/data link layer processing. Baseband circuitry 1120may include a memory controller 1132 for communicating with MACprocessing circuit 1128 and/or a computing platform 1130, for example,via one or more interfaces 1134.

In some embodiments, PHY processing circuit 1126 may include a frameconstruction and/or detection module, in combination with additionalcircuitry such as a buffer memory, to construct and/or deconstructcommunication frames (e.g., containing subframes). Alternatively or inaddition, MAC processing circuit 1128 may share processing for certainof these functions or perform these processes independent of PHYprocessing circuit 1126. In some embodiments, MAC and PHY processing maybe integrated into a single circuit.

Computing platform 1130 may provide computing functionality for device1100. As shown, computing platform 1130 may include a processingcomponent 1140. In addition to, or alternatively of, baseband circuitry1120 of device 1100 may execute processing operations or logic forapparatus 700, storage medium 1000, and logic circuit 1170 using theprocessing component 1130. Processing component 1140 (and/or PHY 1126and/or MAC 1128) may comprise various hardware elements, softwareelements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements mayinclude devices, logic devices, components, processors, microprocessors,circuits, processor circuits (e.g., processor circuit 720), circuitelements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and soforth), integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits(ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signal processors(DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), memory units, logic gates,registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets, and soforth. Examples of software elements may include software components,programs, applications, computer programs, application programs, systemprograms, software development programs, machine programs, operatingsystem software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines,subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces,application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code,computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values,symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an example isimplemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may vary inaccordance with any number of factors, such as desired computationalrate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input datarates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and otherdesign or performance constraints, as desired for a given example.

Computing platform 1130 may further include other platform components1150. Other platform components 1150 include common computing elements,such as one or more processors, multi-core processors, co-processors,memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces,oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards, multimediainput/output (I/O) components (e.g., digital displays), power supplies,and so forth. Examples of memory units may include without limitationvarious types of computer readable and machine readable storage media inthe form of one or more higher speed memory units, such as read-onlymemory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM(SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymermemory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase changeor ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, an array of devices such as RedundantArray of Independent Disks (RAID) drives, solid state memory devices(e.g., USB memory, solid state drives (SSD) and any other type ofstorage media suitable for storing information.

Computing platform 1130 may further include a network interface 1160. Insome examples, network interface 1160 may include logic and/or featuresto support an X2 interface as described in one or more 3GPP LTE or LTE-Aspecifications or standards. For these examples, network interface 1160may enable an apparatus 700 located at a base station to communicativelycouple to one or more other base stations via an X2 communicationchannel.

Device 1100 may be, for example, user equipment, a computer, a personalcomputer (PC), a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebookcomputer, a netbook computer, a server, a server array or server farm, aweb server, a network server, an Internet server, a work station, amini-computer, a main frame computer, a supercomputer, a networkappliance, a web appliance, a distributed computing system,multiprocessor systems, processor-based systems, wireless access point,base station, node B, subscriber station, mobile subscriber center,radio network controller, router, hub, gateway, bridge, switch, machine,or combination thereof. Accordingly, functions and/or specificconfigurations of device 1100 described herein, may be included oromitted in various embodiments of device 1100, as suitably desired. Insome embodiments, device 1100 may be configured to be compatible withprotocols and frequencies associated one or more of the 3GPP LTESpecifications and/or IEEE 802.16 Standards for WMANs, and/or otherbroadband wireless networks, cited herein, although the examples are notlimited in this respect.

Embodiments of device 1100 may be implemented using single input singleoutput (SISO) architectures. However, certain implementations mayinclude multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 1118-f) for transmissionand/or reception using adaptive antenna techniques for beamforming orspatial division multiple access (SDMA) and/or using multiple inputmultiple output (MIMO) communication techniques.

The components and features of device 1100 may be implemented using anycombination of discrete circuitry, application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), logic gates and/or single chip architectures. Further,the features of device 1100 may be implemented using microcontrollers,programmable logic arrays and/or microprocessors or any combination ofthe foregoing where suitably appropriate. It is noted that hardware,firmware and/or software elements may be collectively or individuallyreferred to herein as “logic” or “circuit.”

It should be appreciated that the exemplary device 1100 shown in theblock diagram of FIG. 11 may represent one functionally descriptiveexample of many potential implementations. Accordingly, division,omission or inclusion of block functions depicted in the accompanyingfigures does not infer that the hardware components, circuits, softwareand/or elements for implementing these functions would be necessarily bedivided, omitted, or included in embodiments.

FIG. 12 illustrates an embodiment of a broadband wireless access system1200. As shown in FIG. 12, broadband wireless access system 1200 may bean internet protocol (IP) type network comprising an internet 1210 typenetwork or the like that is capable of supporting mobile wireless accessand/or fixed wireless access to internet 1210. In one or moreembodiments, broadband wireless access system 1200 may comprise any typeof orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based wirelessnetwork, such as a system compliant with one or more of the 3GPP LTESpecifications and/or IEEE 802.16 Standards, and the scope of theclaimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.

In the exemplary broadband wireless access system 1200, access servicenetworks (ASN) 1214, 1218 are capable of coupling with base stations(BS) 1214, 1220 (or eNBs), respectively, to provide wirelesscommunication between one or more fixed devices 1216 and internet 1210,or one or more mobile devices 1222 and Internet 1210. One example of afixed device 1216 and a mobile device 1222 is UE 105 or UE 205, with thefixed device 1216 comprising a stationary version of UE 105 or UE 205and the mobile device 1222 comprising a mobile version of UE 105 or UE205. ASN 1212 may implement profiles that are capable of defining themapping of network functions to one or more physical entities onbroadband wireless access system 1200. Base stations 1214, 1220 (oreNBs) may comprise radio equipment to provide RF communication withfixed device 1216 and mobile device 1222, such as described withreference to device 1200, and may comprise, for example, the PHY, MAC,RLC or PDCP layer equipment in compliance with a 3GPP LTE Specificationor an IEEE 802.16 Standard. Base stations 1214, 1220 (or eNBs) mayfurther comprise an IP backplane to couple to Internet 1210 via ASN1212, 1218, respectively, although the scope of the claimed subjectmatter is not limited in these respects.

Broadband wireless access system 1200 may further comprise a visitedconnectivity service network (CSN) 1224 capable of providing one or morenetwork functions including but not limited to proxy and/or relay typefunctions, for example authentication, authorization and accounting(AAA) functions, dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) functions,or domain name service controls or the like, domain gateways such aspublic switched telephone network (PSTN) gateways or voice over internetprotocol (VoIP) gateways, and/or internet protocol (IP) type serverfunctions, or the like. However, these are merely example of the typesof functions that are capable of being provided by visited CSN 1224 orhome CSN 1226, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is notlimited in these respects. Visited CSN 1224 may be referred to as avisited CSN in the case where visited CSN 1224 is not part of theregular service provider of fixed device 1216 or mobile device 1222, forexample where fixed 1216 or mobile device 1222 is roaming away fromtheir respective home CSN 1226, or where broadband wireless accesssystem 1200 is part of the regular service provider of fixed device 1216or mobile device 1222 but where broadband wireless access system 1200may be in another location or state that is not the main or homelocation of fixed device 1216 or mobile device 1222.

Fixed device 1216 may be located anywhere within range of one or bothbase stations 1214, 1220, such as in or near a home or business toprovide home or business customer broadband access to Internet 1210 viabase stations 1214, 1220 and ASN 1212, 1218, respectively, and home CSN1226. It is worthy to note that although fixed device 1216 is generallydisposed in a stationary location, it may be moved to differentlocations as needed. Mobile device 1222 may be utilized at one or morelocations if mobile device 1222 is within range of one or both basestations 1214, 1220, for example.

In accordance with one or more embodiments, operation support system(OSS) 1228 may be part of broadband wireless access system 1200 toprovide management functions for broadband wireless access system 1200and to provide interfaces between functional entities of broadbandwireless access system 1200. Broadband wireless access system 1200 ofFIG. 12 is merely one type of wireless network showing a certain numberof the components of broadband wireless access system 1200, and thescope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.

Some examples may be described using the expression “in one example” or“an example” along with their derivatives. These terms mean that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the example is included in at least one example. The appearances ofthe phrase “in one example” in various places in the specification arenot necessarily all referring to the same example.

Some examples may be described using the expression “coupled”,“connected”, or “capable of being coupled” along with their derivatives.These terms are not necessarily intended as synonyms for each other. Forexample, descriptions using the terms “connected” and/or “coupled” mayindicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electricalcontact with each other. The term “coupled,” however, may also mean thattwo or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yetstill co-operate or interact with each other.

It is emphasized that the Abstract of the Disclosure is provided tocomply with 37 C.F.R. Section 1.72(b), requiring an abstract that willallow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technicaldisclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not beused to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Inaddition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen thatvarious features are grouped together in a single example for thepurpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is notto be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed examplesrequire more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather,as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in lessthan all features of a single disclosed example. Thus the followingclaims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with eachclaim standing on its own as a separate example. In the appended claims,the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-Englishequivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein,”respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,” “second,” “third,” and soforth, are used merely as labels, and are not intended to imposenumerical requirements on their objects.

In some examples, first computer-implemented methods may includereceiving, at a base station for a wireless network, measurementinformation from a wireless device that indicates an ability of thewireless device to receive data from a coordinating set of base stationsvia a plurality of separate communication links. The firstcomputer-implemented methods may also include coordinating transmissionof one or more protocol data units to the wireless device from thecoordinating set of base stations. The coordinating may includeexchanging information via one or more backhaul communication channelscoupling base stations included in the coordinating set of basestations. The one or more protocol data units may be caused to betransmitted to the wireless device from the coordinating set of basestations via the plurality of separate communication links based, atleast in part, on the exchanged information. According to some examples,the coordinating set may include the base station and one or more otherbase stations.

In some examples, the first computer-implemented methods may alsoinclude coordinating transmission of the one or more protocol data unitsto balance transmission load of the one or more protocol data unitsbetween the base stations included in the coordinating set of basestations and/or mitigate downlink transmission interference between thebase stations included in the coordinating set of base stations of thewireless network.

According to some examples, the first computer-implemented methods mayalso include coordinating transmission of the one or more protocol dataunits to mitigate downlink transmission interference between the basestations included in the coordinating set of base stations. For theseexamples, mitigating downlink transmission interference may includeresource blanking that may include transmission of one or more almostblank subframes, transmission of one or more reduced power subframes, orscheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks.

In some examples, the first computer-implemented methods may alsoinclude the measurement information may include channel stateinformation for each communication link from among the plurality ofseparate communication links. The channel state information for eachcommunication link may include at least one of a precoding matrixindicator, a rank indicator or a channel quality indicator.

According to some examples for the first computer-implemented methods,the information exchanged via the backhaul communication channel mayinclude one of scheduling information to transmit the one or moreprotocol data units, one or more precoding matrix indicators associatedwith a communication link via which the one or more protocol data unitsare transmitted, a subframe index associated with the one or moreprotocol data units, a time of a beginning of transmission of the one ormore protocol data units, or HARQ information associated with the one ormore protocol data units.

In some examples, the first computer-implemented methods may alsoinclude causing the one or more protocol data units to be transmittedbased on one of the exchanged scheduling information or the exchangedHARQ information.

According to some examples, the first computer-implemented methods mayalso include exchanging resource information periodically with thecoordinating set of base stations and updating the schedulinginformation based, at least in part, on the exchanged resourceinformation.

According to some examples, the first computer-implemented methods mayalso include operating the base station and the coordinating set of basestations in compliance with one or more or more 3GPP LTE standards toinclude LTE-A. For these examples, base station and the coordinatingbase stations may be operated as an eNB and the one or more backhaulcommunication channels coupling the eNBs included in the coordinatingset of eNBs may be an X2 communication channel. Also for these examples,the information exchanged via the X2 communication channel may includescheduling information formatted in a downlink control information (DCI)message format.

According to some examples, at least one machine readable mediumcomprising a plurality of instructions that in response to beingexecuted on a computing device cause the computing device to carry outthe example first computer-implemented methods as mentioned above.

In some examples a communications device may be arranged to perform theexample first computer-implemented methods as mentioned above.

In some examples an apparatus or device may include means for performingthe example first computer-implemented methods as mentioned above.

According to some examples, an example first apparatus for a basestation may include a processor circuit and a receive component arrangedfor execution by the processor circuit to receive measurementinformation from a wireless device that indicates an ability of thewireless device to receive data from a coordinating set of base stationsvia a plurality of separate communication links. The first apparatus mayalso include a coordination component arranged for execution by theprocessor circuit to coordinate transmission of one or more protocoldata units to the wireless device from the coordinating set of basestations. The coordination may include exchanging information via abackhaul communication channel configured to couple base stationsincluded in the coordinating set of base stations. The exchangedinformation to include scheduling information to transmit the one ormore protocol data units or one or more precoding matrix indicatorsassociated with the plurality of separate communication links. The firstapparatus may also include a schedule component arranged for executionby the processor circuit to cause the one or more protocol data units tobe transmitted to the wireless device from the coordinating set of basestations via the plurality of separate communication links based, atleast in part, on the exchanged information.

In some examples for the example first apparatus, the coordinating setmay include the base station and one or more other base stations of thewireless network.

In some examples for the example first apparatus, the coordination ofthe transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wirelessdevice may be to balance transmission load of the one or more protocoldata units between the base stations included in the coordinating set ofbase stations and/or mitigate downlink transmission interference betweenthe base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations.

According to some examples, the example first apparatus may alsomitigate downlink transmission interference via resource blanking thatincludes at least one of transmission of one or more almost blanksubframes, transmission of one or more reduced power subframes, orscheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks.

In some examples, the example first apparatus may also include a radiointerface coupled to the processor circuit to receive the measurementinformation from the wireless device. According to some examples, themeasurement information may include channel state information for eachcommunication link from among the plurality of separate communicationlinks. The channel state information for each communication link mayinclude at least one of a precoding matrix indicator, a rank indicatoror a channel quality indicator.

In some examples for the example first apparatus, the informationexchanged via the backhaul communication channel also including at leastone of a subframe index associated with the one or more protocol dataunits, a time of a beginning of transmission of the one or more protocoldata units, or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) informationassociated with the one or more protocol data units.

According to some examples for the example first apparatus, the schedulecomponent may also be arranged to cause the one or more protocol dataunits to be transmitted based on one of the exchanged schedulinginformation or the exchanged HARQ information.

In some examples for the example first apparatus, the coordinationcomponent may also be arranged to exchange resource informationperiodically with the coordinating set of base stations and the schedulecomponent may also be arranged to update the scheduling informationbased, at least in part, on the exchanged resource information.

According to some examples for the example first apparatus, the basestation and the coordinating set of base stations may be arranged tooperate as eNBs in compliance with one or more or more 3GPP LTEstandards to include LTE-A. For these examples, an X2 interface may becoupled to the processor circuit to enable the coordination component tocoordinate transmission of one or more protocol data units to thewireless device from the coordinating set of base stations.

In some examples for the example first apparatus, a digital display maybe coupled to the processor circuit to present a user interface view.

According to some examples, an example second apparatus for a basestation may include means for receiving channel state information from awireless device. The channel state information to indicate an ability ofthe wireless device ability to receive data from a coordinating set ofbase stations via a plurality of separate communication links. Theexample second apparatus may also include means for coordinatingtransmission of one or more protocol data units to the wireless devicefrom the coordinating set of base stations. The coordinating may includeexchanging information via a backhaul communication channel configuredto couple the base stations included in the coordinating set of basestations. The second apparatus may also include means for initiating thetransmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wirelessdevice from the coordinating set of base stations via a plurality ofseparate communication links based, at least in part, on the exchangedinformation.

In some examples for the example second apparatus, the coordinating ofthe transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wirelessdevice may be to balance transmission load of the one or more protocoldata units between the base stations included in the coordinating set ofbase stations and/or mitigate downlink transmission interference betweenthe base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations.

According to some examples, the second example apparatus may alsoinclude means for communicating with the wireless device to receive themeasurement information.

In some examples for the example second apparatus, the measurementinformation may include channel state information to include at leastone of a precoding matrix indicator, a rank indicator or a channelquality indicator.

According to some examples for the example second apparatus, theinformation exchanged via the backhaul communication channel may includeone of scheduling information to transmit the one or more protocol dataunits, one or more precoding matrix indicators associated with acommunication link via which the one or more protocol data units aretransmitted, a subframe index associated with the one or more protocoldata units, a time of a beginning of transmission of the one or moreprotocol data units, or HARQ information associated with the one or moreprotocol data units.

In some examples for the second example apparatus, the means forinitiating the transmission of the one or more protocol data units tothe wireless device may also include means for initiating thetransmission of the one or more protocol data units based on one of theexchanged scheduling information or the exchanged HARQ information.

According to some examples for the second example apparatus, the meansfor coordinating transmission of the one or more protocol data units mayalso include means for exchanging resource information periodically withthe coordinating set of base stations. Also, the second exampleapparatus may also include means for updating the scheduling informationbased, at least in part, on the exchanged resource information.

In some examples, the example second apparatus may also include meansfor operating the base station and the coordinating set of base stationsas eNBs in compliance with one or more or 3GPP LTE standards to includeLTE-A. This example second apparatus may also include means forcommunicating to base stations included in the coordinating set of basestations via an X2 interface in order to coordinate transmission of theone or more data units to the wireless device from the coordinating setof base stations.

In some examples, second computer-implemented methods may includetransmitting, from a first base station, scheduling information via abackhaul communication channel to a second base station. The schedulinginformation may be for transmitting one or more protocol data units to awireless device having an ability to receive data from the first basestation. The second computer-implemented methods may also includecoordinating with the second base station via the backhaul communicationchannel transmission of the one or more protocol data units to thewireless device based on the scheduling information or based on hybridautomatic repeat request (HARQ) information associated with thetransmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wirelessdevice.

In some examples, the second computer-implemented methods may alsoinclude coordinating transmission of the one or more protocol data unitsto balance transmission load of the one or more protocol data unitsbetween the first and the second base stations. Coordinatingtransmission of the one or more protocol data units may also be formitigating downlink transmission interference between the first and thesecond base stations.

According to some examples, the second computer-implemented methods mayalso include coordinating transmission of the one or more protocol dataunits to mitigate downlink transmission interference between the firstand the second base stations via resource blanking that includes atleast one of transmission of one or more almost blank subframes,transmission of one or more reduced power subframes, or scheduling a setof blanked physical resource blocks.

In some examples, the second computer-implemented methods may alsoinclude transmitting, from the first base station, via the backhaulcommunication channel to the second base station at least one of aprecoding matrix indicator associated with a communication link viawhich the one or more protocol data units are to be transmitted to thewireless device, a subframe index associated with the one or moreprotocol data units or a time of a beginning of transmission of the oneor more protocol data units to the wireless device.

According to some examples, the second computer-implemented methods mayalso include the first and second base stations being operated asEvolved Node Bs (eNBs) in compliance with one or more 3rd GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards toinclude LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). For these examples, the backhaulcommunication channel may be an X2 communication channel.

According to some examples, at least one machine readable mediumcomprising a plurality of instructions that in response to beingexecuted on a computing device cause the computing device to carry outthe example second computer-implemented methods as mentioned above.

In some examples a communications device may be arranged to perform theexample second computer-implemented methods as mentioned above.

In some examples an apparatus or device may include means for performingthe example second computer-implemented methods as mentioned above.

In some examples, third computer-implemented methods may includereceiving, at a first base station, schedule information via a backhaulcommunication channel from a second base station. The scheduleinformation may be associated with transmitting one or more protocoldata units to a wireless device having an ability to receive data fromboth the first base station and the second base station. The thirdcomputer-implemented methods may also include coordinating with thesecond base station via the backhaul communication channel transmissionof the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device based onthe scheduling information. Also, resource information may be receivedfrom the second base station via the backhaul communication channel. Theresource information may indicate additional or less resources availableto the second base station for transmitting the one or more protocoldata units to the wireless device. Transmission of the one or moreprotocol data units to the wireless device may then be adjusted based onthe resource information.

According to some examples, the third computer-implemented methods mayalso include coordinating transmission of the one or more protocol dataunits to balance transmission load of the one or more protocol dataunits between the first and the second base stations or mitigatedownlink transmission interference between the first and the second basestations.

In some examples, the third computer-implemented methods may alsoinclude coordinating transmission of the one or more protocol data unitsto mitigate downlink transmission interference between the first and thesecond base stations via resource blanking. Resource blanking mayinclude at least one of transmission of one or more almost blanksubframes, transmission of one or more reduced power subframes, orscheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks.

According to some examples, the third computer-implemented methods mayalso include transmitting, from the first base station, via the backhaulcommunication channel to the second base station at least one of aprecoding matrix indicator associated with a communication link viawhich the one or more protocol data units are to be transmitted to thewireless device, a subframe index associated with the one or moreprotocol data units, a time of a beginning of transmission of the one ormore protocol data units to the wireless device or hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARQ) information associated with transmission of theone or more protocol data units.

In some examples, the third computer-implemented methods may alsoinclude the first and second base stations being operated as EvolvedNode Bs (eNBs) in compliance with one or more 3rd Generation PartnershipProject (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards to includeLTE-Advanced (LTE-A). For these examples, the backhaul communicationchannel may be an X2 communication channel.

According to some examples, at least one machine readable mediumcomprising a plurality of instructions that in response to beingexecuted on a computing device cause the computing device to carry outthe example third computer-implemented methods as mentioned above.

In some examples a communications device may be arranged to perform theexample third computer-implemented methods as mentioned above.

According to some examples an apparatus or device may include means forperforming the example third computer-implemented methods as mentionedabove.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving, at a base station for a wireless network, measurementinformation from a wireless device that indicates an ability of thewireless device to receive data from a coordinating set of base stationsvia a plurality of separate communication links; coordinatingtransmission of one or more protocol data units to the wireless devicefrom the coordinating set of base stations, the coordinating to includeexchanging information via one or more backhaul communication channelscoupling base stations included in the coordinating set of basestations, the exchanged information including scheduling information forthe one or more protocol data units, the scheduling informationincorporated in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tunneling protocoluser-plane (GTP-u) extension header, the exchanged information includingat least one of a precoding matrix indicator associated with one of theplurality of separate communication links, a subframe index associatedwith the one or more protocol data units, a time of a beginning oftransmission of the one or more protocol data units, or hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARQ) information associated with the one or moreprotocol data units; and causing the one or more protocol data units tobe transmitted to the wireless device from the coordinating set of basestations via the plurality of separate communication links based, atleast in part, on the exchanged information.
 2. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, the coordinating set of base stations to include thebase station and one or more other base stations of the wirelessnetwork.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprisingcoordinating transmission of the one or more protocol data units tobalance transmission load of the one or more protocol data units betweenthe base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations ormitigate downlink transmission interference between the base stationsincluded in the coordinating set of base stations.
 4. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising coordinatingtransmission of the one or more protocol data units to mitigate downlinktransmission interference between the base stations included in thecoordinating set of base stations via resource blanking that includes atleast one of transmission of one or more reduced power subframes orscheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, the measurement informationincluding channel state information for each communication link fromamong the plurality of separate communication links, the channel stateinformation for each communication link to include at least one of aprecoding matrix indicator, a rank indicator or a channel qualityindicator.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprisingcausing the one or more protocol data units to be transmitted based onone of the exchanged scheduling information or the exchanged HARQinformation.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:exchanging resource information periodically with the coordinating setof base stations and updating the scheduling information based, at leastin part, on the exchanged resource information.
 8. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, the base station and thecoordinating set of base stations being operated in compliance with oneor more 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution(LTE) standards to include LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 8, the base station and thecoordinating set of base stations being operate as Evolved Node Bs(eNBs).
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the one or morebackhaul communication channels coupling the eNBs included in thecoordinating set of eNBs being an X2 communication channel and theinformation exchanged via the X2 communication channel includingscheduling information formatted in a downlink control information (DCI)message format.
 11. An apparatus for a base station comprising: aprocessor circuit; a receive component arranged for execution by theprocessor circuit to receive measurement information from a wirelessdevice that indicates an ability of the wireless device to receive datafrom a coordinating set of base stations via a plurality of separatecommunication links; a coordination component arranged for execution bythe processor circuit to coordinate transmission of one or more protocoldata units to the wireless device from the coordinating set of basestations, the coordination to include exchanging information via abackhaul communication channel configured to couple base stationsincluded in the coordinating set of base stations, the exchangedinformation to include scheduling information to transmit the one ormore protocol data units, the scheduling information incorporated in aGeneral Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tunneling protocol user-plane(GTP-u) extension header, the exchanged information to further includeat least one of a precoding matrix indicator associated with one of theplurality of separate communication links, a subframe index associatedwith the one or more protocol data units, a time of a beginning oftransmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wirelessdevice, or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information associatedwith transmission of the one or more protocol data units; and a schedulecomponent arranged for execution by the processor circuit to cause theone or more protocol data units to be transmitted to the wireless devicefrom the coordinating set of base stations via the plurality of separatecommunication links based, at least in part, on the exchangedinformation.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, the coordinating set of basestations to include the base station and one or more other base stationsof the wireless network.
 13. The apparatus of claim 11, the coordinationof the transmission of the one or more protocol data units to thewireless device to balance transmission load of the one or more protocoldata units between the base stations included in the coordinating set ofbase stations or mitigate downlink transmission interference between thebase stations included in the coordinating set of base stations.
 14. Theapparatus of claim 13, the coordination of the transmission of the oneor more protocol data units to the wireless device to mitigate downlinktransmission interference via resource blanking that includes at leastone of transmission of one or more reduced power subframes or schedulinga set of blanked physical resource blocks.
 15. The apparatus of claim11, comprising a radio interface coupled to the processor circuit toestablish a communication link with the wireless device.
 16. Theapparatus of claim 15, the measurement information including channelstate information for each communication link from among the pluralityof separate communication links, the channel state information for eachcommunication link to include at least one of a precoding matrixindicator, a rank indicator or a channel quality indicator.
 17. Theapparatus of claim 11, the schedule component also arranged to cause theone or more protocol data units to be transmitted based on one of theexchanged scheduling information or the exchanged HARQ information. 18.The apparatus of claim 11, the coordination component also arranged toexchange resource information periodically with the coordinating set ofbase stations and the schedule component also arranged to update thescheduling information based, at least in part, on the exchangedresource information.
 19. The apparatus of claim 11, the base stationand the coordinating set of base stations arranged to operate as EvolvedNode Bs (eNBs) in compliance with one or more 3^(rd) GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards toinclude LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).
 20. The apparatus of claim 19, comprisingan X2 interface coupled to the processor circuit to enable thecoordination component to coordinate transmission of one or moreprotocol data units to the wireless device from the coordinating set ofbase stations.
 21. The apparatus of claim 11, comprising a digitaldisplay coupled to the processor circuit to present a user interfaceview.
 22. At least one non-transitory machine-readable medium comprisinga plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on asystem cause the system to: transmit, from a first base station,scheduling information via a backhaul communication channel to a secondbase station, the scheduling information for transmitting one or moreprotocol data units to a wireless device having an ability to receivedata from the first base station, the scheduling informationincorporated in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tunneling protocoluser-plane (GTP-u) extension header; transmit, from the first basestation to the second base station via the backhaul communicationchannel, at least one of a precoding matrix indicator associated with acommunication link via which the one or more protocol data units are tobe transmitted to the wireless device, a subframe index associated withthe one or more protocol data units, a time of a beginning oftransmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wirelessdevice, or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information associatedwith transmission of the one or more protocol data units; and coordinatewith the second base station via the backhaul communication channeltransmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wirelessdevice based on the scheduling information or based on the informationassociated with the transmission of the one or more protocol data unitsto the wireless device.
 23. The at least one non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 22, comprising instructions that inresponse to being executed on the system cause the system to coordinatetransmission of the one or more protocol data units to balancetransmission load of the one or more protocol data units between thefirst and the second base stations or mitigate downlink transmissioninterference between the first and the second base stations.
 24. The atleast one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 22, comprisinginstructions that in response to being executed on the system cause thesystem to coordinate transmission of the one or more protocol data unitsto mitigate downlink transmission interference between the first and thesecond base stations via resource blanking that includes at least one oftransmission of one or more reduced power subframes or scheduling a setof blanked physical resource blocks.
 25. The at least one non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 22, the first and second base stationsto be operated as Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) in compliance with one or more3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE)standards to include LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).
 26. The at least onenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 25, the backhaulcommunication channel comprising an X2 communication channel.
 27. Atleast one non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a pluralityof instructions that in response to being executed on a system cause thesystem to: receive, at a first base station, scheduling information viaa backhaul communication channel from a second base station, thescheduling information associated with transmitting one or more protocoldata units to a wireless device having an ability to receive data fromboth the first base station and the second base station, the schedulinginformation incorporated in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)tunneling protocol user-plane (GTP-u) extension header; transmit via thebackhaul communication channel to the second base station at least oneof a precoding matrix indicator associated with a communication link viawhich the one or more protocol data units are to be transmitted to thewireless device, a subframe index associated with the one or moreprotocol data units, a time of a beginning of transmission of the one ormore protocol data units to the wireless device, or hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARQ) information associated with transmission of theone or more protocol data units; coordinate with the second base stationvia the backhaul communication channel transmission of the one or moreprotocol data units to the wireless device based on the schedulinginformation; receive resource information from the second base stationvia the backhaul communication channel, the resource information toindicate additional or less resources available to the second basestation for transmitting the one or more protocol data units to thewireless device; and adjust transmission of the one or more protocoldata units to the wireless device based on the resource information. 28.The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 27,comprising instructions that in response to being executed on the systemcause the system to coordinate transmission of the one or more protocoldata units to balance transmission load of the one or more protocol dataunits between the first and the second base stations or mitigatedownlink transmission interference between the first and the second basestations.
 29. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium ofclaim 27, comprising instructions that in response to being executed onthe system cause the system to coordinate transmission of the one ormore protocol data units to mitigate downlink transmission interferencebetween the first and the second base stations via resource blankingthat includes at least one of transmission of one or more reduced powersubframes or scheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks. 30.The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 27, thefirst and second base stations to be operated as Evolved Node Bs (eNBs)in compliance with one or more 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project(3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards to include LTE-Advanced(LTE-A).
 31. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium ofclaim 30, the backhaul communication channel comprising an X2communication channel.